


Wasting Time

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First Time, Marauders' Era, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 20:17:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5941735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus and Sirius come up with a few clever ways to entertain themselves while alone in the castle on a Hogsmeade Saturday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wasting Time

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

"I'm so bloody _bored_ of this!"

Snarling angrily, Sirius Black heaved his Arithmancy textbook across the room. With a _whoosh_ of paper and a heavy _fwack!_ , the volume hit the stone wall and landed, open and facedown, on the floor.

"That was not _nearly_ satisfying enough," he grumbled, sliding off his bed as though to retrieve the book but instead kicking it further towards the door.

"Quite a temper you have there, Mr. Black," said Remus Lupin from beneath arched eyebrows, sprawled lazily and surrounded by books and notes on his own bed.

"The better to beg your attention with, my dear," replied Sirius, raising his own eyebrows. "But I mean it. I really _am_ bored."

Remus mumbled something inaudible under his breath, highlighting a passage in his textbook with a wave of his wand. Sirius was trying to distract him, he knew. And while he didn't exactly find lounging about the castle on a Hogsmeade Saturday a really riveting activity, either, it _had_ been Sirius's idea. Anyway, if Sirius was going to deliberately try to distract him, Remus fully intended to deny him that pleasure for as long as possible.

He flipped a page in his book. "Oh! Now I didn't see _that_ before. . . ." He marked another line with his wand.

He could feel Sirius's eyes boring into him, but he didn't raise his head to meet them. Sirius cleared his throat. Remus shuffled through his notes. Sirius dangled his legs off the edge of the bed and began to hum a song that he knew Remus hated. Remus scratched his head with a quill and suppressed a grin.

Finally, Sirius could take it no longer. He moved to Remus's bed, where he promptly flung his arms out and flopped down right across Remus's legs.

Laughing, Remus kicked at Sirius's back until he was able to wriggle his legs free. "All right, all right, you win! But this was your plan to begin with." He put on a high- pitched imitation of his friend's voice. "You didn't _want_ to go to Hogsmeade today, you said. We're big sixth-year boys now and we've _outgrown_ that nonsense, you said. There was a full moon last Wednesday and I need my _rest_ , you said."

"I didn't say we would _study!_ That was your idea, you great prat."

"Well, I'm behind. I _did_ have a transformation last week. And you couldn't come up with anything to do when I asked, if memory serves."

Sirius sat up and frowned in indignation. "I _did_ come up with something to do. _Not go to Hogsmeade!_ And we're doing that, right?" He flung himself forcefully back down across Remus's shins, causing him to wince, and commenced a staring contest with the bed's canopy.

Raising an eyebrow, Remus leaned back on his pillows and re-opened his textbook.

Sirius was acting ridiculous on purpose and they both knew it. Of his group of friends, he was the best at reading Sirius and reacting appropriately to his moods. He knew quite well that Sirius could go from happy to sullen quickly, and, if prodded too much, from sullen to volatile in a matter of seconds, and he knew that that was why Sirius usually came to him for company when he was feeling restless. When Remus allowed himself to stop and think about it, he marveled at the number of unspoken agreements he and Sirius shared. It was implicit that only he could tolerate (and often control) Sirius's moods; it was assumed that Sirius would be the one to comfort him after a bad transformation. Peter had commented before that the two of them rivaled James and Lily in their ability to communicate with each other.

Remus frowned down at the boy lolling across his legs and allowed himself to study the wild shock of black hair that covered his friend's eyes, which were now screwed tightly shut in an expression he wore only when frustrated. Remus's gaze traveled to Sirius's chest, rising and falling quickly beneath the thin cotton shirt exposed by his opened robes . . . up his muscular arms to his fists, which?-

Remus imperceptibly shook his head and willed his attention back to studying. He and Sirius understood each other, true; they were friends, confidants, co-conspirators . . . but for Remus, there were some things that went _un_ shared, _un_ declared.

_And unrequited,_ he told himself. He shook his head again. _Now stop it, or you're just going to end up pouting like dog boy, here._

He thought ruefully that it was lucky he'd had all those years of practice at suppressing emotions and concealing personal details. Since his boyhood, he'd necessarily kept a very important part of who he was from almost everyone he knew. Even the worst of situations had their advantages, though, as experience made it slightly easier to keep a secret (a _much_ bigger secret, he thought sometimes) from one of the first people who knew him well enough to discover what he was, but who loved and trusted him regardless.

It wasn't fair or right to have to hide this. Maybe Sirius wouldn't want him to hide it. But Remus was coolly rational where Sirius was impetuous and unstructured, and this was _his_ way of handling himself. Living with just one more secret was preferable to compromising the most important relationship of his life.

He returned his attention to Sirius, who was obviously still in a state, but from whom he was not going to force a conversation. Finally, the black-haired boy shifted position until he was stretched out beside Remus, who decided not to point out the fact that he was lying directly on top of his notes and probably crumpling them horribly. Glancing over, he caught his friend's eye. Sirius was looking at him so plaintively he decided to give in a little. "Yes?" he asked in a stern voice.

"Remus, I thi?-" Sirius sighed and rolled onto his side, further crushing Remus's parchment. Remus cringed, but Sirius didn't notice. He instead tried again. "You never really work my nerves like . . . some other people do. Thanks."

So _that's_ it, Remus thought. 

"Still angry with Peter, then?" he asked. The two of them had had some row over a subject neither of them had spoken of afterward, but it must have really upset Sirius. He forgave easily unless someone gave him a good reason to hold a grudge.

Sirius muttered something presumably uncomplimentary about Peter, then said, "Maybe . . . and you're more fun than James, too, lately . . . mooning about with Lily all the time. What a sap. D'you know he was calling today's trip to Hogsmeade a _date?_ Honestly! A date, when half the school is there with you!"

"He's allowed to want to spend time with Lily," Remus said quietly. "This has been a while coming, you know."

Sirius was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure . . . anyway . . . you're really one of my favorite people to be around. And especially lately. So thanks."

Was it just Remus, or was Sirius . . . _looking_ at him differently? He felt his pulse quicken and a chill run through him as he returned his friend's gaze . . . followed rapidly by a flush of hot embarrassment as he realized he was now officially _staring._ "It's no problem," he said, tearing his eyes away and picking up a roll of parchment.

Goddammit. He really hated to lose his cool like that.

Sirius, however, had either not noticed or chosen to ignore it. He did shift position rapidly, though, moving to sit at Remus's feet, leaning against a post at the foot of the bed and reaching over to drum his fingers on Remus's leg. He was clearly no longer in a _very_ dour mood, Remus observed with some amusement, but he still seemed . . . keyed-up. Pensive about something.

Remus decided to press his luck. "What _was_ your fight with Peter about, Padfoot?"

A hint of embarrassment seemed to flash across Sirius's face, and he momentarily stopped his drumming. 

"I'd really rather not talk about it. He was a bit over his borders, that's all."

Remus accepted this as an end to the conversation and was reaching to re-open his textbook when Sirius announced, "Moony, I wasn't kidding earlier. I really am bored. Let's find something other than studying to do, please? The whole castle is almost empty, anyway." Apparently, he had happened upon a way to shake his mood, because the mischievous gleam that was uniquely _Sirius_ had returned to his eyes and he was grinning widely.

Remus laughed and shook his head, but he found it difficult to refuse. Sirius had a way of sucking him into his schemes, and he had a feeling this one would be no exception. "What did you have in mind?" he asked warily.

"Well." Sirius looked thoughtful. "It would appear that our caretaker, one Mr. Argus Filch, had a most unfortunate run-in the other day."

"Would it?" Remus raised both eyebrows and sank further into his pillows.

"It would indeed. A most unfortunate run-in with a beast from the Forbidden Forest. All kinds of creatures hide in there, you know . . . minotaurs, manticores, vampires . . . _werewolves,_ " he gave Remus a playful, canine smile and a wink, "and . . . big, black dogs, if you'll believe it."

Remus was beginning to see where his friend was going with this.

"Anyway, this dog came bounding out of the woods and toppled poor Filch over. Fell right on his bum in the middle of the grass, the old codger, and was none too happy about the incident. And it would seem that something fell out of his pocket."

Unexpectedly, Sirius sprang from Remus's bed and retrieved something from underneath his own mattress with a swift sweep of his arm. Remus could hear a metallic jangle even before Sirius leaped back onto the bed, displaying his prize with an enormous grin.

A single silver ring dangled from the pad of Sirius's index finger, and from the ring were suspended around thirty silver, gold, and bronze keys.

Sirius began to nod enthusiastically as the other boy's eyes grew very, very wide. "There's got to be a key to every locked door in the castle here!" Remus breathed, reaching for the ring.

"That's right!" Sirius announced gleefully, yanking it out of Remus's reach. He shuffled through the keys until he produced one that was long, gleaming, and silver. "With all of the school accessible to us. . . ."

"You want to start with Filch's office, don't you?"

"A man after my own heart! It's time we reclaimed some of our old things, anyway, Moony." He grabbed Remus's arm and pulled him off the bed, spilling books and parchment all over the floor. "No time to clean it up, mate! Let's go!"

Remus rolled his eyes and grinned to himself as Sirius shot out the door and bounded down the stairs. He followed more slowly and had to suppress a burst of laughter when he entered the common room to find Sirius apologizing to a first year for knocking him down.

Sirius shook his head sheepishly and cast a rather sideways, embarrassed look at

Remus before springing to life again and moving quickly toward the door.

"Right. I think we should check around the castle a bit, just to make sure Filch is away from his office before we head down there," Sirius said as soon as the two reached an empty corridor. After a fair amount of exploring, they found Filch on his hands and knees in the entrance hall, scrubbing at a great deal of mud that some of the first and second years had tracked in. It looked to be a considerable mess, and Remus figured Filch would probably be there for quite some time.

"You wonder why he doesn't just use magic," Sirius whispered, motioning toward Filch's bucket and brush from the statue behind which he and Remus were hiding.

"It's his guilty secret," whispered Remus conspiratorially. "He enjoys Muggle cleaning because it gives him more to complain about."

Both boys snickered and made their way toward Filch's office, which they found without being intercepted. Luckily, most of the Hogwarts professors were in Hogsmeade with the boys' classmates.

Remus held his breath when Sirius slipped the key inside Filch's door. Tumblers clicked as Sirius twisted it, spun the doorknob, and led the way into the office.

It was obscenely dingy and dark, much as Remus would have expected any place Filch occupied to be. It smelled rather foul in here as well, he noted, drawing in too sharp a breath and immediately gagging.

Sirius turned to him, a grin dancing upon his lips. "All right there, Moony? Now, why don't you try to turn up some of the toys he's nicked from us, and I'll have a look around at what else is in here. . . ." He immediately disappeared behind Filch's desk and could be heard rooting around. Remus wrinkled his nose. He didn't really want to know what Sirius would uncover back there, thanks.

Gingerly, he moved to open a drawer marked "Confiscated" and slid it open. Inside he found a number of smoke bombs and dungbombs that he guessed he and his friends could make use of, along with a pack of Exploding Snap cards that had belonged to James. Pocketing the items, he shifted his gaze downward and found another drawer marked "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

Before he was able to open it, though, a sharp bark of laughter caught his attention and he spun around to see Sirius pop up from behind Filch's desk with a smudge of dirt across his forehead and a puppyish grin on his face. Remus found himself looking endearingly at his friend for a moment, but he quickly pushed aside all notions of brushing Sirius's hair out of his eyes and instead focused on what Sirius held.

"Muggle magazines! _Dirty_ ones!" Sirius exclaimed gleefully. "Do you believe it? The pictures aren't even moving!" He tossed a magazine at Remus, who raised his eyebrow and examined it at arm's length.

"Fine taste he has, this one. Honestly, Muggle pornography . . ." Remus trailed off, because Sirius had already abandoned his stack of magazines and ducked behind the desk again. By the sound of it, he was rummaging in a box on the floor.

Remus tossed the magazine aside, then made the mistake of looking up. Oh yes, there were definitely chains hanging high on the wall. Chains . . . and _manacles._ Did Dumbledore know about this? And just what sort of people did Filch use these things on, really? Remus found himself suddenly grateful that students were generally assigned detentions with professors and not with Filch himself.

At the same moment, though, he heard an unmistakable howl of laughter, presumably from the spot that Sirius was now occupying. "Moony! Now you _really_ won't believe this!" Before Remus had time to pinpoint the location of his friend's voice, Sirius sprang up from behind a cabinet, clutching something made of supple- looking brown leather.

Remus gaped. "Is that. . . ."

"A whip!" Sirius crowed. "There are handcuffs down there, too, Moony! Either Filch is too keen on punishing troublemakers, or he has some sort of a weird fetish!"

"Or both," Remus groaned, casting his gaze to another corner, where he was fairly sure he could see a dog collar of some sort. He smirked as he had a sudden idea. _What a sight that would be,_ he thought, turning slightly pink as an interesting visual entered his mind of its own accord.

He looked quickly down at the floor, afraid that Sirius would spot him and magically guess what was on his mind . . . and he noticed a shadow moving under the crack at the bottom of the door. "Sirius!" he hissed, pointing.

Sirius's head snapped up and he breathed, "Bollocks. _Shit._ We're really in for it now. . . ." Terrified, he tossed the items he was holding into a corner.

"Leave it to me," Remus muttered. "When I say 'go.'"

Sirius nodded mutely, and Remus picked up a glass goblet from the top of a cabinet, flinging it against a wall. With a mighty _crash,_ it shattered into a thousand pieces. The door burst open, and Filch came charging in, bellowing about never having seen students getting into any more trouble in all of his years at Hogwarts. As soon as he'd spotted the door opening, though, Remus had pulled a half-dozen smoke bombs from his pocket and thrown them at the floor with all of his might, filling the room with thick plumes of billowing purple smoke. "Go!" he hissed, and bolted right past Filch and out the door. He could hear Sirius scrambling behind him, followed by the sudden onset of a loud, hacking cough from Filch.

Both boys flew through the door and went careening down the hallways of the castle in their attempt to escape Filch, whose footsteps could be heard pounding somewhere behind them but who was-?Remus glanced backward-?nowhere in sight. Sirius, however, was on Remus's heels, now looking exuberant instead of terrified. Nothing thrilled Sirius more than _almost_ being caught, Remus was sure of it.

Sirius put on a sudden burst of speed as they rounded a corner and whipped his wand from his robes, skidding to a stop in front of the enormous portrait of a plump, middle-aged witch wearing black mourning robes. " _Adaperio!_ " he gasped, flicking his wand in the witch's face.

"Oooooh, yes, Mr. Black, sir. Back to see me again? I've missed you!" she giggled coquettishly, then swung open to reveal an alcove.

Remus stared at the dark-haired boy, openmouthed. "How did you--?"

"Just something I discovered in my travels," whispered Sirius, grabbing Remus by the arm and yanking him into the portrait-hole. " _Adoperio,_ and _hurry!_ " he told the witch with another wave of his wand. Obligingly, the portrait snapped shut over the opening, hiding the two boys from view just as they heard Filch's footsteps rush by and his wheezy voice call, "You can't hide from me!"

Remus shook his head in the dark. "You never cease to amaze me."

"You're welcome, Moony. Think we're safe . . . Filch didn't even see who we were," laughed Sirius. "That was great!"

Remus nodded, forgetting that his friend couldn't see him in the pitch-black room, and slumped against the wall to catch his breath. He heard Sirius fumble around and mutter something in the dark, and the tiny room was suddenly fully illuminated by the light of a single torch on the wall. Remus looked around. The alcove was barely large enough to fit the both of them, and Sirius was standing so unnervingly close to him . . . was his heart beating this quickly from their close call or from something else?

Sirius was breathing hard, too. He pushed a hand through his hair and placed it on the wall beside Remus's head, effectively cornering him.

Now Remus was sure it wasn't just the running that was making him breathe so fast, and he could feel blood rising to his cheeks. Well, shit. _Shit._ This was clearly no good. To distract himself, he said, "So how do you know about this place? Is this where you bring dates?"

His voice cracked. Right. Lovely. Excellent question, too. Oh, he couldn't _wait_ to get an honest answer to that one.

Sirius, however, seemed to be ignoring Remus's obvious nervousness. For the thousandth time, Remus wondered if he _knew._ Hell, maybe he should just ask. He was embarrassing himself enough already; why stop now when he could _really_ be thorough?

" . . . were nicking food from the kitchen one day," Sirius was saying. "James found it, but he reckons the widow in the portrait has a crush on me. Can you imagine?"

Why yes, in fact, Remus _could._ His lips fell open for a second, trying to formulate an acceptable answer, and he closed his eyes, unable to think of one. /Now you are _really_ making an arse of yourself/. . . he thought, wincing internally. He opened his mouth further to make an excuse ("I'm sorry, I found a bottle of Firewhiskey back in Filch's office and couldn't help myself" didn't seem acceptable), but heard the soft movement of Sirius's robes first. /Good, I've made him so uncomfortable he wants to leave. Well, the coast should be clear by now/. . . .

Warm breath tickled his cheek.

He stiffened and kept his eyes closed, unsure of what to do. What was Sirius?-

And then he felt a soft mouth pressed lightly to his own. He felt himself gasp, but the lips did not move. Sirius exhaled slowly, filling Remus with his breath. Remus inhaled and felt suddenly weak. He turned his head slightly to the side, and the friction of Sirius's lips dragging across his elicited a soft groan from someplace very deep inside of him.

What was he _doing?_ This was too much. This was?-

"Padf?-" he began quietly, but the instant he began to move his mouth, Sirius caught his lips fully with his own and began to move them, increasing the pressure, kissing him soundly and Remus kissed back, leaned forward, sinking into Sirius, helpless, powerless to fight this.

Again Remus opened his mouth, to ask _what_ or _why_ or maybe _when,_ he wasn't sure which, but Sirius's hands snaked up his back and brushed over his neck, causing him to shiver, and gripped the back of his head. And then Sirius opened his mouth too, and Remus abandoned whatever question he'd been ready to ask for the more agreeable option of casting off all rational thought and pushing his tongue hungrily inside. He reveled in the whimper he received by way of reward.

It was as though every nerve in his body was alive and hypersensitive, making him aware of the perfect, solid fit between his body and Padfoot's, the way their chests rose up and down together, against each other, as they kissed, and the way Sirius's coarse, dark hair felt as he ran his hand through it, the way it slipped easily between his fingers, like a caress. He had laid in bed and thought of this moment, but idly, detachedly, because it would never happen between himself and Sirius, they were _friends,_ and God, if it did happen, he had never dared to imagine it as quite _this_ good. How often did the reality outstrip the fantasy?

Remus absently noted that Sirius's hands had left his head and were moving downward along his back as the two continued to kiss fervently, groaning from time to time into each other's mouths . . . but he became acutely aware of their placement as they moved across his ass . . . and _squeezed._ At once, Remus was reminded of exactly whom he was kissing and why he had wanted to kiss this man so badly for so long, and he laughed right into Sirius's mouth.

Sirius immediately broke the kiss (leaving his hands where they had been, Remus observed with some satisfaction), and when he looked at Remus, his usual mocking expression was accompanied by a new look of absolute wonder. "What did I do?" he asked, his voice breaking, sounding as though he was on the brink of either laughter or tears.

Remus felt his head spinning, and he leaned his forehead against Sirius's, desperate not to lose contact now that he'd had it. "You're . . . you!" he exclaimed, trying to catch his breath. "You're wonderful," and he pressed Sirius against the opposite wall and continued to plunder the inside of his mouth with his tongue. Sirius's eyes slipped shut as Remus began to suck at his lower lip and kiss and nip at his neck until he was shuddering uncontrollably; when Remus touched his arm under his robes, he felt goosebumps.

Neither of them was sure how long they stood gripping each other in their hidden alcove, but after a time their initial fever passed and they slid to the ground until they were sitting, arms and legs entangled, kissing each other gently.

"I didn't know until . . . now," Sirius murmured into Remus's mouth.

Remus chuckled softly. "I don't mind."

"You were always just . . . Moony."

"And you're Padfoot." Remus moved to kiss Sirius's earlobe. "Which is why I never really entertained serious thoughts of . . . you know."

Sirius sighed. "Moony . . . is this?-?"

Remus answered by leaning close and kissing him decisively, deeply on the mouth until the room reeled for both of them.

Both boys came out of their daze when they heard footsteps and voices in the hall outside.

"Padfoot, it sounds like people are back from Hogsmeade."

"Mmmmmmm." Sirius kissed the hazel-eyed boy again and rose to his feet, offering a hand to help Remus up, too. He aimed his wand and, when the noise from the hall had died down, muttered " _Adaperio._ " The portrait swung open.

Remus moved to leave, but suddenly turned around and pulled his wand to extinguish the torch.

"Don't." Sirius grabbed his hand. "I think we'll be back soon." And with a wink and a grin, he tore off toward the Gryffindor common room, leaving Remus to roll his eyes and smirk at him before he followed.


End file.
